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Honorary Mother (it was a Crafting Emergency)

Last Thursday night, I received a text message from Alyssa. She asked me if I would be available on Friday. I told her that I was going to spend the day shopping for John's birthday gifts, and then I asked her what she needed. She text'd me back and said that she may have to call me with some "sewing" questions.

After what I considered to be an excessive number of text messages, I concluded that Alyssa's sorority had what could only be termed as a Crafting Emergency! (Why do these kids not pick up the phone and actually call people?
This multiple text thing does me in - I am slow as molasses when it
comes to texting on my phone and it was like pulling teeth to get the following information - so what could have been discussed in ten minutes ended up taking a full hour of text messaging to get the full story).

Following is what I would call typical of how most teenagers work - this is the summation of 100 text messages and how the Chi Omega Crafting Emergency was handled:

Alyssa was involved in this "secret" thing with her sorority. But I
knew what it is because she had told me a bit about it during spring break - the sorority was participating in a Greek Sing competition that sounded similar to a variety show competition between all the sororities and the fraternities. Secret to everyone but me, I guess????

They needed 17 skirts made by Saturday, which was less than 36 hours from the original text message... as in 2 days. These skirts were their costumes, so they were an
integral part of the show - the show that Chi-O has won four years in a row and
that they were hoping to win again because of PRIDE.

They had 1 sewing machine. They couldn't start sewing until 4:00 Friday afternoon because they all had classes and work.

After the back and forth text messages, Alyssa finally asked me if I could bring her sewing machine to campus on Friday afternoon. Once I found out what they needed to do in such a short amount of
time, I asked her if she wanted my help. She said yes, they need my help (I
think this is why she began the text marathon in the first place).

So the plan was that I would drive out to GMU on Friday with three more
machines, and I would help them set up sewing stations so that they could make 17 skirts in one night.

Oh, and did I mention that they did't have a pattern? And that only 1 person knew how to sew?And they only had black thread.Oh... and no scissors... NONE.And fabric... they didn't think they had enough.

Oiy. I had a feeling I was going to have a very late Friday night with the
sorority girls.

Also, during this text marathon, Alyssa mentioned that her entire sorority wanted to order custom made
Greek letter tee-shirts from me. I told her that I could do that, but that we needed get
the skirts done first. Seriously - these girls have no sense of urgency at all. It makes me laugh at the innocence and lack of reality for our youth.

This whole thing was just SO ALYSSA! What a joke. They didn't even think about this part of
their show until the night before the performance. These teenagers just sleigh me - they are so
disorganized. They wait till the last minute for everything. And even though Alyssa will be nineteen years old this year, this is the one thing that I will never understand about teenagers. It begins when they enter middle school, and clearly, it continues during their college years. I think it is a very good thing that Alyssa is away at college and that I no longer have to witness these crisis on a daily basis. I rarely have patience for lack of planning. But in this case, I felt sorry for the girls, so I put on my SuperMom Cape and off I went.

When I arrived at GMU, the Crafting Emergency had reached Red Alert status. The girls were in full panic mode. No one knew what they were doing and they looked like pretty little deer with headlights shining in their eyes.

So keeping that in mind, here is how it went:

I am worn out. I can't tell you how much this
project stressed me because I wanted to do right by these girls. My main goal was to guide them and direct them, but NOT to take over the project - it was their thing and I was only there to offer guidance. But these poor girls had no clue. And had I not thought to toss in my rotary cutter and self-healing mat, there is no way they would have had
enough fabric. As it was, I figured out how to do away with a hem by using the
selvage as the hem line. This was a good thing because it meant no hemming stitch, which was good due to the time crunch and their lack of sewing
experience (and that ungodly looking black thread they used on the pastel fabrics).

I spent 5 hours unjamming machines, setting up, and directing
stations. Without the stations, we would have been lost. But once I suggested "stations" they looked so relieved. They seriously had no idea where to begin and it became apparent that they were hoping that I could solve this problem for them. In the end, I had them
set up the following stations and we were able to complete 17 skirts in five hours:

cutting - one girl, since I only had one rotary cutter and they didn't
have enough fabric

side seams - two machines/two girls

ironing the seams and making the casing for the elastic - two girls/two ironing
boards because I thought to bring extra

sewing the casing seams (this was a fiasco and the seams were very wobbly, but they were good enough) - two machines/two girls

threading the elastic - one girl because of the measurement issue
(matching skirt color to each girl's measurements)

sewing the elastic together and closing the seams - me

ironing the finished skirts and logging them into their tracking system - one girl (again, matching skirt color to girl's measurements)

They hoped to have a waistband on these skirts. But with the shortage of
fabric, the only way we could make them was with elastic. So one of the girls
had to run to WalMart to buy elastic. Thank God she did that. I don't know what
we would have done without that option. They had 1.5 yards of fabric for every
two skirts... not very much fabric to work with.

I only saw Alyssa for 20 minutes the entire time I was there because she
was not on the "costume committee". Sadness. But I got to work with the junior and senior
girls, and that was really interesting and actually quite fun! They were very gracious and
so appreciative. Also, they were SO GROWN UP! What a difference 4 years of
college makes. Their conversations were mature and enlightening. I sincerely had
a great time and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I am so glad to have had the
opportunity to get to know the girls whom Alyssa is mentoring with - their
example is wonderful and their morals and ethics seem to be in-line with "the
good people of society." I feel blessed to have been able to witness this first
hand.

Sadly, after all this work, Chi Omega did not win the competition. Alyssa said everyone was bawling when it was over - they were that upset. My heart is heavy for these girls. They worked so hard to
win Greek Sing. But, based upon the pictures shown at the beginning of this entry, I'm guessing they were far and above the cutest girls in the competition.
The costumes turned out adorable. And their hair looked amazing (they all slept on sponge curlers the night before the competition).

Many years ago, my mother told me that parenting never ends. She said that it evolves and changes over the years, but that when all is said and done, a mom is a mom and the child will always turn to the mom in times of need, even when that child becomes an adult. A Crafting Emergency may not be a real life crisis, but in Alyssa's world, it was a crisis of epic proportions. I am so thankful that she is still child enough to want her mother's help when things go wrong. It was fun to be the hororary mother to an entire sorority during this crisis... even if it only meant sitting down at the sewing machine and helping them make 17 skirts.

Comments

Your blogging about sewing has been on my mind recently because I needed to find my own "happy place" lately. Too strange that your post would be about a frantic aspect of sewing. :-)

I'm hand paper piecing a hexagon pattern round tablecloth for our kitchen table as I'm recovering from back surgery. I used a die cut machine to precut the paper before surgery. Now I'm just doing the basting, then start to piece them together by hand. Should be interesting, since the neck collar doesn't alow me to look down much (which is why I'm not machine sewing something). Anyway... just thought that I'd share that I'm trying the sewing therapy thing myself. (I had always associated sewing with stress, due to some LOUD conversations when I was learning to sew from my mother growing up.)

Wow Kelly, that's amazing about your experience with Mt St Helens. Unforgettable, that's for sure! I'm happy that Mt Redoubt is across the inlet from us, so we can observe but not evacuate. Eeeeeek. That ash fall is not too bad so far. We are glad of that.

That is such a cute story! Seriously, my son is 18 and leaves for college in the fall...we have many choices, but my #1 choice is the University 30 minutes away. Far enough for some rite of passage and growing up, but close enough for a rescue. Good work, mama!

Ah, I remember the Greek Sing days very well! In my four years, we won three out of four.

Gotta say, my parents never even visited me on campus after the initial drop-off. My mom didn't "get" sororities and thought it was stupid, so I just didn't talk about it much with them. I had a great time, however.

I still can't believe you did that, especially with everythign going on in your life. Alyssa is so lucky to have you! Good luck tomorrow. I love ya!

Thank goodness they had you! I'm wondering if this is something similar to Sing Song that we did in college . . . but it was a huge production and usually the parents showed up for the weekend. But still thinking it could be similar.